Mercari reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
A peer-to-peer marketplace for reselling secondhand goods, where the joy of hunting down cheap finds constantly collides with broken seller protection, escalating fees, and powerless support.
What users love
Huge selection and genuinely cheap finds are the main reason people come back
Buyers love the breadth: they find things long gone from stores, vintage, collectibles, and rare items, often cheaper than on eBay. For many, browsing Mercari for a deal is the favorite part of their day.
Great app when you're looking for stuff no longer in stores at great prices.
I find more stuff at better prices on here than eBay!
My favorite part of the day is cruising Mercari and finding a really great deal!
A real seller upside: effortless listing and decluttering in a couple of taps
Despite the pain points, many praise how easy it is to list and sell: snap a photo, create a listing, and clear out clutter while making money. For some sellers it's their number-one app, ahead of eBay on usability.
I absolutely love Mercari. Makes it so easy to declutter! Just take a photo, create your listing, list it, sell it, pack it....Buh bye Clutter, Hello space and Money!
We sell on Mercari, ebay, poshmark, vinted and depop.And this is our number one selling app.
As a seller in multiple marketplaces, I appreciate the simplicity of getting set up and running on this platform.
When a deal goes smoothly, fast shipping and careful packaging delight
The bulk of 5★ reviews are about specific successful purchases: item exactly as pictured, fast shipping, careful packaging, sometimes a nice extra from the seller. For happy buyers, Mercari is a reliable way to find exactly what they wanted.
As described, fast shipping. Great seller A+++ thank you 😊
My purchase was seamless and easy. My item was in perfect condition, the seller even reached out to me shortly after my purchase
Quick shipper. I received my order 5 days after I ordered it and item was exactly as presented in photo. I would definitely order from this seller again.
What users hate
In any buyer-versus-seller dispute, Mercari almost always sides with the buyer
Sellers report over and over that a buyer returns trash instead of the item or claims an empty box, submits fake "proof," and Mercari approves the refund while the scammer keeps the goods. Even unboxing videos and weight discrepancies don't help — the platform defaults to the buyer's side.
I am a seller and the buyer wanted a return. I got the box back and found that the buyer sent me trash. I filed a claim and even recorded myself Opening the box since it was too light. they still sided with the buyer who stole my item!
I got robbed by a buyer where they returned an item and stole one of its contents and instead of seller protection or something they just told me oh well we don't have enough proof.
They will always take the buyers side.
Support replies with scripts and AI templates but never actually resolves anything
The single loudest complaint: support bounces you to a broken help center, sends the same AI reply on loop, reads from a script, and spends weeks promising to "notify another department" with no result. Reaching a real human is nearly impossible — you wait on hold and get hung up on.
they just kept sending me the same ai response that I need to check the help center, even tho the help center keeps saying it doesnt work. such a awful customer service.
I have contacted customer service at least a dozen times and just keep getting replies that say "we have to notify another department about this issue".
it is impossible to get an actual human to talk to. Even if you call the number provided, you are on hold for 10 minutes and then hung up on. Happens every time.
High fees and pricey shipping eat almost the entire seller's profit
Sellers call the 10% cut plus shipping markups extortion: you sell an item for $10 and pocket about $5, while the buyer pays $20 with shipping and tax. Many migrate to Depop, Vinted, and eBay, where fees are lower or nonexistent.
you'll sell an item for $10 and you'll see maybe five of it if you're lucky. but the buyer will probably pay about $20 with shipping and tax. this is the worst middleman.
The selling fees are HIGH. You get 10$ when I sell a 90$ item? Why do you get so much?
Taking 10% from the seller is crazy. better use the local marketplace, eBay etc.
The platform is overrun with scammers and counterfeits Mercari won't remove
Replica sneakers, fake TCG cards, inauthentic perfume, counterfeit Pandora — buyers routinely receive fakes, and they say Mercari shields scammers for the cut and won't ban known offenders. One user lost $2000 on fake cards even with video proof.
I SPENT $2000 ON SOME TCG CARDS AND THEY TURNED OUT TO BE COMPLETELY FAKE. MERCARI WILL NOT TAKE ACTIOM AGAINST THE SELLER
This app is full of scammers and the mercari support team does nothing to combat this or even listen to complaints on counterfeits or people just sending the wrong items.
Sneakers (especially Jordan's), are mostly replicas. The price is too good for a reason.
ID verification with selfie and biometrics shuts out honest users
The new requirement to upload a driver's license/ID and take a selfie through a third party (Jumio) locks out longtime users: the system "can't process" clear photos, and re-submitting is treated as "circumventing the ID check," triggering instant account closure. Many object to handing biometrics to a foreign company.
I got an email saying it was unable to process so I retook all the photos, and resubmitted. my account was instantly closed entirely for supposedly "trying to circumvent the ID check".
I refuse to now upload my driver's license. Ridiculous.
Mercari now requires AI third party facial recognition through Jumio. If you do not provide your biometric data to this company
Seller payouts are frozen for ages, gated behind the buyer's rating
The seller pays to ship, sends the item, and still waits days for the buyer to rate or for the 3-day window to lapse. Often the payout comes out to $0 over a "shipping issue" even when FedEx/USPS tracking and receipts prove otherwise.
When it was time to get paid (3 days after the item delivered), they held ALL of my funds, so I get $0.
I shipped item right away but have to wait for buyer to give me a rating. So buyer gets their item but seller has to wait days to get paid for item sold.
THEY HOLD YOUR MONEY FOR WEEKS AFTER YOU PAY TO SHIP YOUR OWN ITEMS TO THE BUYER
Paid and never received it — "buyer protection" is charged but doesn't deliver
Buyers pay a protection fee on every purchase, but when a package is lost or never arrives, Mercari refuses refunds citing a "delivered" status, and the money is simply gone. When a seller cancels a paid order, the refund also drags on for weeks.
I bought an item I never received . I contacted Mercari and they would not help me at all. So basically I lost my money.
People pay a protection fee every time they purchase something from Mercari.
Paid for buyer protection, but they wouldn't give my money back because it said it had been delivered.
A race to the bottom: staying visible means endlessly slashing your price
Sellers complain the app forces a race to the lowest price: run a promotion and you're pushed to keep dropping it or your listing disappears. It goes as far as automatic "auto offers" and intrusive "promote this listing" banners no one asked for.
This app basically forces sellers into a race to the bottom. If I run a promotion, I shouldn’t have to keep dropping my price just to stay visible.
You just keep reducing my items to 90% off . If I wanted to give my items away for free I would use Marketplace!!!
Mercari made an "auto offer" on one of my listings today, I didn't have smart pricing or anything on it. Don't make that a thing please.
The app lags, freezes, and won't load item descriptions
Technical glitches are constant: jerky scrolling freezes the screen, the app crashes after 5-10 minutes, and tapping an item often loads only the photo and price — the text and description never appear. The broken search fails to find even an exact listing title.
The jerky movements keeps freezing up the damn screen!!! FIX IT!!! FIX IT NOW!!!
crashes consistently after 5-10 minutes of use, every time. Gets slower and slower until it crashes fully.
9 times outta 10 the photo will load for the item you click on but none of the text loads. you can't read the name or description
The review system is one-sided: auto 5★ after 3 days with no way to contest
If you don't rate within 3 days, the system auto-posts 5★ and strips your right to leave an honest review — users call it dishonest. Sellers can't see the buyer's rating before their own and can't defend themselves, and low stars are allowed even just for declining a discount.
auto rating at 5 stars after 3 days is insane. the default should be no rating, not 5 stars.
mercari needs to let the sellers see the buyers review before the buyer giving a review back. its unfair that a seller cannot defend themselves in a review.
after that a 5⭐ review is left 4 u & u can no longer leave ur own actual review or make changes reflecting ur experience if not positive 2 me that's dishonest & fraud